CBS News vs CNBC

ABC World News Tonight Leads Evening News Ratings

ABC World News Tonight with David Muir began the 2026-2027 broadcast season as the only evening newscast to grow or hold its audience, averaging 8.388 million total viewers and 1.153 million Adults 25-54 for the week of September 21, 2026. This marked its 11th consecutive year as the most-watched evening newscast and its strongest season-opening week in six years. NBC Nightly News with Tom Llamas finished second with 6.495 million total viewers and 970,000 in the demo, while CBS Evening News averaged 3.98 million and 497,000. Ratings are based on Nielsen live+same-day data. These ratings reflect the competitive landscape of broadcast evening news, relevant to advertisers and media planners.

• ABC World News Tonight averaged 8.388 million total viewers and 1.153 million A25-54 viewers for the week of Sept 21, 2026.
• It was the only evening newscast to not lose viewers, starting the 2026-2027 season as most-watched for the 11th consecutive year.
• NBC Nightly News averaged 6.495 million total viewers and 970,000 A25-54, finishing second.

Shira Lazar's What's Trending Scales to Seven-Figure Revenue

Shira Lazar built the creator-driven digital media brand What's Trending, which now generates up to seven figures in annual revenue through platform advertising, brand partnerships, licensing, distribution, and events. Despite a setback with CBS News, she scaled the brand across YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok. What's Trending has 4 million followers and distribution deals with MSN, Spotify, and Screenvision. Lazar also advocates for creator rights, launching the Creator Bill of Rights with Rep. Ro Khanna and founding Creators for Mental Health. The article highlights her journey and the growing importance of creator-driven media, as noted by NowThis CEO Sharon Mussalli.

• What's Trending generates annual revenue ranging from mid-six figures to low seven figures.
• The brand has 4 million followers across social platforms, with nearly 2 million on TikTok.
• What's Trending has distribution relationships with MSN, Spotify, and Screenvision.

Paramount In Talks to Settle Multistate Lawsuit for Warner Deal

Paramount has cleared the final legal obstacle to its $111 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery after a federal judge dissolved the court order blocking the deal and settled antitrust lawsuits with 12 state attorneys general. The settlement mandates an additional $300 million annual investment in U.S. film production over five years, maintaining California operations, and releasing at least 30 films annually in theaters for the first two years (32 for the following three), with a 45-day theatrical window and 90-day holdback from streaming. An all-journalist News Editorial Independence Board will oversee CNN and CBS News, with penalties including asset divestiture. The Writers Guild will drop its lawsuit after a $17.5 million health fund payment. The deal, approved by the DOJ and EU, is expected to close within days, avoiding a $7 million daily ticking fee after October 1.

• Paramount's acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery was cleared after a federal judge dissolved the blocking order and antitrust lawsuits with 12 state attorneys general were settled.
• The consent decree requires the combined company to release at least 30 theatrical films per year for the first two years and 32 for the following three, with a 45-day theatrical window and 90-day holdback from streaming.
• The settlement mandates an additional $300 million annual investment in U.S. production and maintains California operations.

CNBC Press Releases: New Media Alert, Transcripts, and Podcast Launch

New press releases include a media alert for 'Inside Man' documentary, transcripts of interviews with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, and the launch of the second season of 'CNBC Changemakers with Julia Boorstin' podcast.

Hype Around Anthropic's IPO

Anthropic is in an SEC-monitored quiet period ahead of an expected fall 2026 IPO, while third-party reports and leaks have circulated highly optimistic financial claims. Reuters reported that Anthropic is projecting 2028 revenue of roughly $190–$200 billion, citing unnamed sources. Bloomberg published leaked documents suggesting a large Q2 revenue surge, and CNBC linked reporting indicates Q2 revenue jumped to over $11.5 billion. Podcasters and commentators (e.g., Gavin Baker, Dwarkesh Patel) have publicly amplified aggressive revenue forecasts. The author signals skepticism about these claims, noting the reliance on undisclosed assumptions and unnamed sources and saying he will dissect what has been omitted from the public narrative.

• Anthropic is in an SEC-monitored 'quiet period' ahead of an IPO expected in the fall of 2026.
• Reuters reported Anthropic is projecting 2028 revenue of roughly $190 billion to $200 billion, citing two unnamed people familiar with the company's financials.
• Bloomberg published reporting based on leaked documents indicating Anthropic's Q2 revenue surged over 14-fold.

Reddit shifts to AI moderation, reduces karma reliance

Reddit announced infrastructure and moderation changes that expand its use of AI-powered tools to improve community moderation, fight spam and scraping, and make it easier for new users to participate. The company is expanding testing of its Rules Hub — an AI moderation suite using large language models to match posts/comments to community rules — from 700+ communities to all new communities, with a wider rollout planned later in the year. Reddit said it hopes stronger built-in abuse prevention will reduce reliance on account-age and karma thresholds. The company is also migrating moderator workflows on its legacy Old Reddit site and continuing other moderator tooling enhancements. The article notes Reddit’s strong Q2 financial results and CEO Steve Huffman’s comment about “choppy” search referral traffic.

• Reddit announced changes to its infrastructure and moderation tools to make participation easier and reduce spam/scraping.
• Reddit is expanding tests of its AI-powered moderation suite, Rules Hub, which was initially used by 700+ communities; all new communities can now test it and it will be widely available later this year.
• Rules Hub uses large language models (LLMs) to determine whether posts or comments match the intent of community rules.